BILD in Tijuana | Why Facebook is also to blame for the refugees’ suffering

Tijuana – His mother has warned him not to leave Honduras. She urged him not to believe the promises found on Facebook – about a caravan of people travelling from Honduras to the US.

But Jonatan (30) did not listen to his mother. He is part of the migrant caravan – 10 000 people who have travelled from Honduras to Mexico via Guatemala. On foot!

Now Jonatan and his wife and two children are sitting in a small igloo tent on a former baseball pitch in Tijuana, the Mexican city bordering the US. “I lost my job and then read about the caravan on Facebook. It said that, with so many people at once, we would surely have better prospects for asylum in the US,” he says.

He still believes this and prays for it every day.

I don’t tell Jonatan that he fell for a lie, because I don’t want to dash his hopes.

However, it is about time that we talk about the role that Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media play in the refugee movement.

I have reported for BILD from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. I travelled the Balkans route for months and know many refugees from various countries. Ever since smartphones became almost universally affordable, the lies have spread rapidly.

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He governs a country where there are attacks almost every day – and from which hundreds of thousands of people have fled to Germany.

Yes, Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. It is ruled by poverty and drug cartels. Many people receive death threats. But as I was sitting with Jonatan in front of the tent, I remembered Zaid. I met him in Afghanistan this spring. He told the same story, just from an Afghan perspective: “I believed in what I found on social media. I believed that I would become rich in Germany,” said Zaid. “In the end, I lost 10 000 euros to traffickers, I was deported, and now I’ve got nothing”.

Afghanistan’s President, Ashraf Ghani, told us in an interview that something must urgently be done to prevent the lies: “It requires strategic communication. There is the illusion that the streets in Germany are paved with gold. They’re not.” Ghani is right, but Facebook is still not doing – anything.

What can be done?

Facebook should report and close the accounts of professional traffickers. They have the data, after all. At the same time, governments from all over the world must finally face digital reality.

For instance, it is hardly helpful for the German Foreign Minister to hand out a couple of posters with information in Kabul, or to promote not fleeing to Germany on Afghan TV. What is needed is more awareness raising on social media, ideally a deliberate targeting of the people who may be starting their trek. An Afghan government official told me in 2016: “We have suggested so much to the German government, but what they invest in money to COUNTER the refugee movement is ridiculous”.

I wished Jonatan from Honduras all the best on his journey. I hope that he and his family will make it to the US. However, I am quite sure that he – and many others – will not make it. He’ll soon be back in Honduras. Even poorer than before.